My good friend Gina Bell interviewed me as part of her series on How Does She Do It? Here’s a copy of our interview.

How long have you been in business online? 2 years

Tell us about your business. Who do you love to work with? My ideal client is the motivated entrepreneur who’s got lots of great ideas but gets stuck getting them from their head into the marketplace. As the “Get it Done Girl” I love supporting that person via live coaching, interactive classes and informational products to implement their ideas and take action. The benefit to them in working with me is they get the tools to Get it Done which allows them to make the money they want, serve the client they want and make the difference they know they can make. (more…)

Communication is vital to successful outsourcing. If you don’t let them know exactly what you have in mind, and if you don’t listen to their questions and concerns, your business will suffer. However when there’s excellent communication, your business will thrive.

Here are some areas of concern:

Communication between Owner and Assistant

Whether you are outsourcing tech support, writing, web design or something else, there is a great deal of effort needed in order to keep the lines of communication open. If you allow your workers to do work for you without communicating your goals and what it is that you need, you will find that the work will not be done as you’d hoped. Everyone will be frustrated. (more…)

If you’re an entrepreneur building a business and you want to utilize the internet in your marketing, you may wonder if your business needs a blog and the short answer is of course – no. Your business doesn’t need anything.

But if you want your business to grow, if you want to build relationships that lead to customers who love and buy what you have to offer, and if you want to start generating the revenue that you’ve always dreamed of then the answer is yes – you do need a blog. (more…)

Toddlers love to say "no" to just about everything. For them it’s sport. For us, as entrepreneurs, saying "no" is about survival.

To better protect your valuable time, I want to suggest some simple actions you can take to say “no” to time vampires and say “yes” to your life.

• Cut down the “Chatter”. If you have Instant Messenger, Skype, or Google Chat open, set your status as “away”, “busy”, or even “invisible”. If there’s an emergency, people will find you. If there isn’t an emergency, you’ll have focus for the time that you need it to get things done.

• Turn off email notifications. If you get a little flash, beep, or any type of interruption whenever a new email comes in, turn that off. Every single time that your eye gets drawn to the flash it distracts you and causes you to lose your train of thought. Even if it’s a split second, it adds up and cuts into your productivity.
• Speaking of email, unsubscribe from most of your email notification lists. Choose just a few that you really enjoy reading and dump the rest. If that’s a scary thought, then set up a new email account and re-subscribe with the new email address. Plan to check it once each week. You may find that the new email account never gets opened.

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Guest Post by Amy Miyamoto

When Kim initially asked me to contribute a post here, I had a flurry of ideas about all the practical, logical, and helpful posts I might write.  But over the last couple of weeks since our conversation, each time I have sat down to write one of these practical, logical and helpful posts, I was hit with a whole lot of stuck.

Initially, I couldn’t articulate the reason for my resistance…yet over the last few days I have become increasingly aware of the culprit.  My first bit of awareness came from my observations of recent conversations with some of my clients and colleagues, (all of which are up to great things in the world.)  Yet, I noted that the tone in their voices, although focused and dedicated, were all missing something that I couldn’t quite put my finger on.  Until one conversation where a friend of mine was outlining her five year plan to grow her business which would then enable her to “finally start enjoying the fruits of her labor” which included more time for herself to start having more fun. (more…)

The hot summer days are upon us and I’m thrilled to have the flexibility to take a morning yoga class, swim with my kids and enjoy late afternoon baseball games.

BUT what about your business – can you afford to put it on hold?

It can be hard to focus on business with summer vacations, school-aged kids at home, and the natural desire to soak up some sunshine and relax before fall. But most of us can’t afford to put our businesses on hold for summer. So what can help us manage our business while we still enjoy the summer with our families?

Focus on ONE Project

Instead of trying to do it all, choose one meaningful project to  focus on. That way instead of feeling pulled in a million different directions you have a plan of action. (more…)

When you’re working from home and you have kids at home, you’re constantly conflicted. On one hand, you feel like you’re never able to get onto the computer to work. On the other hand, you feel like you’re on the computer all the time.

There are many days when I feel completely unbalanced and stressed. Either I’m on the computer way too much, not paying enough attention to my kids, or when I am with them enjoying our time, I’m feeling bad that I’m not attending to my business.

As women, I think we ALL face these feelings at some time or another. So how do you get it done without stressing out?

Here’s one simple tool I use, and truth is that each time use it, I’m amazed by its brilliance and wonder why I don’t use it more often. (more…)

So often I, and the many moms I speak with, are struggling with the balance of  our family and work. After 12 years of doing the “juggle” I don’t believe there is a perfect solution. In truth we do the best we can with where we are on a particular day always staying focused on WHY we chose to work from home in the first place.

While I can multi-task with the best of them, it rarely serves me, nor my kids, because I’m not present in either situation, and who benefits from that?

As women, we need the camaraderie of others and to know what they’re going through and has worked and what hasn’t. By nature we love to connect and gather information.

I want to share a great resource for you. Beginning this week, my friend Caitriona Ellis (from Ireland) is hosting a Super Mom Summit where nine moms (me included) and one dad are speaking about how they made the move from being an unsatisfied employee to creating a successful home-based businesses. The common thread amongst all the speakers is that we all began as employees. Listen into the stories about finding your passion,  how to sell and market your ideas, and how to use resources around you to make your escape.

The Super Moms Summit begins today, May 31st.

Last year I was invited to speak on a panel at a local community college to a group of entrepreneurs during National Entrepreneurship Week discussing “Success Skills for Women.” For me, it’s a joy to be on a panel, I love the interaction, the students coming up to ask questions when it’s over and the connections I make with the other panelists.  An extra perk is that I got to get dressed up and put on lipstick (which I rarely do while working from home.)

While the college market is not necessarily my target market, I’ve always envisioned myself speaking to groups of young people to share the possibilities of what entrepreneurship can mean in their lives.  During the 5-mile walks I took during my first pregnancy, I often rehearsed the talk I wanted to share to high school students telling them to be open to all the learning that came their way, no matter in what form.

Fast forward many months and I received a message from a professor of business and entrepreneurial studies from the community college. She wanted to nominate me for Connecticut SBA’s Women in Business Champion of the Year award. I was traveling a lot during that time, didn’t take in the opportunity she was presenting me, forgot to get back to her, and pretty much dropped the ball.

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Yesterday I had the opportunity to participate in a TweetChat around the topic of Life Purpose. I found it fascinating because the conversation was so focused around a particular topic and interesting people showed up to ask questions, engage with each other and share information.

Please watch my short video about what I learned in this process.

One reason I want to share this video with you is to let you know about the work that my friend and mentor, Baeth Davis, is doing about teaching Life Purpose information. It is through understanding your purpose that you can say goodbye to meaningless work and not enough money!

You can access her free interactive trainings for the next four days, just visit this link. You can also check out some of the shifts that I made in my business by understanding (and embracing) my life’s purpose.

Want to see what a Tweet Chat is all about, stop by and join the conversation.